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Novel Conversations, 1740-1817 Kathleen (Katie) Gemmill Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2017 © 2017 Kathleen (Katie) Gemmill All rights reserved Abstract Novel Conversations, 1740-1817 Kathleen (Katie) Gemmill This dissertation examines how and why eighteenth-century novelists came to represent people interacting in ways that registered as lively and real. Speech had long been crucial in literary genres as varied as drama, philosophical dialogue, romance and narrative poetry; but techniques for representing speech would proliferate in the eighteenth century as writers gave conversation a new centrality in the novel, seeking to capture the manner of speech over and above its basic matter. “Novel Conversations” explores this literary-historical development with chapters on four writers who were especially interested in the technical challenge of recording vocal effects: Samuel Richardson, James Boswell, Frances Burney and Jane Austen. They developed a set of tools for rendering in prose the auditory and social nuances of conversation, including tone and emphasis, pacing and pausing, gesture and movement. I argue that their experiments resulted in a new “transcriptional realism” in the novel. This term describes the range of techniques used to craft dialogue that faithfully approximates the features of real speech, while remaining meaningful and effectual as an element of prose narrative. In developing methods to this end, eighteenth-century writers borrowed techniques from other genres, combined them, and invented new ones. One rich source was life writing, the broad category of documentary prose genres that both absorbed and influenced the novel form in its early stages. Writers also sought complementary techniques in drama, whose stage directions, tonal notations and cues about who is speaking to whom at what point in time could be readily adapted for prose narrative. The task at hand was to calibrate two often opposing styles: the empirically driven, transcriptional mode of life writing and the more overtly stylized mode of drama. Writers did so by developing two resources within the novel form: the narrator, who occupies a flexible platform from which to elaborate conversational dynamics with description; and print itself, with all of its graphic and spatial possibilities for shaping speech on the page, including accidentals, line breaks, and typography. What are in one sense formalist readings are complemented by a careful attention to the materiality of the manuscript page and the printed page. In approaching my primary authors’ texts from a technical perspective, I do justice to their experimental efforts to use writing as a technology for capturing voice: a recording device avant la lettre. This approach in turn gives me critical purchase to analyze the effect that this technology serves: detailed representations of characters operating in a lively, familiar social world. Table of Contents List of Charts, Graphs, Illustrations ................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii Dedication ....................................................................................................................................... v Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 A Note on Editions ........................................................................................................................ 21 Chapter One: Samuel Richardson’s Transcriptional Realism ...................................................... 23 Chapter Two: Life (Writing) As Performance in Boswell’s London Journal .............................. 62 Chapter Three: Frances Burney’s Paper Conversations ............................................................. 103 Chapter Four: The End of Conversation in Austen .................................................................... 149 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 184 i List of Charts, Graphs, Illustrations 1. Facsimile excerpt from page 60 of Eliza Haywood’s Love in excess; or the fatal enquiry, a novel. Part the second. By Mrs. Haywood. London: printed for W. Chetwood, at Cato’s-Head, under Tom’s Coffee-House, in Russel-Street, Covent Garden, and sold by J. Roberts in Warwick-Lane, [1719?]. 2. Facsimile excerpt from page 132 of Daniel Defoe’s The fortunes and misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders, &c. Who was born in Newgate, and during a Life of continu’d Variety for Threescore Years, besides her Childhood, was Twelve Year a Whore, five times a Wife (whereof once to her own Brother) Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv’d Honest, and died a Penitent, Written from her own memorandums. London: printed for, and sold by W. Chetwood, at Cato’s-Head, in Russel-Street, Covent-Garden; and T. Edling, at the Prince’s-Arms over- against Exerter-Change in the Strand, MDCCXXI. [1721] [1722]. 3. Facsimile excerpt from volume I, page 54 of Samuel Richardson’s Pamela: or, virtue rewarded. In a series of familiar letters from a beautiful young damsel, to her parents. Now first Published In order to cultivate the Principles of Virtue and Religion in the Minds of the youth of both sexes. In two volumes. The fifth edition. To which are prefixed, extracts from several curious letters written to the editor on the subject... London: printed for C. Rivington, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard; and J. Osborn, in Pater-Noster Row, MDCCXLI. [1741]. 4. Facsimile excerpt from page 343 of Charles Dickens’s The Posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club. London: Chapman & Hall, 1837. 5. Facsimile excerpt from volume I, page 144 of Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa. Or, the history of a young lady: comprehending the most important concerns of private life. And particularly shewing, The Distresses that may attend the Misconduct Both of Parents and Children, In Relation to Marriage. Published by the editor of Pamela. London: printed for S. Richardson: and sold by A. Millar, over-against Catharine-Street in the Strand: J. and Ja. Rivington, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard: John Osborn, in Pater-Noster Row; and by J. Leake, at Bath, M.DCC.XLVIII. [1748]. 6. Facsimile excerpt from volume II, page 205 of Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa. London: [1748]. See full citation above. 7. Facsimile excerpt from page 49 of John Banks’s The Unhappy Favourite: or, the Earl of Essex. A Tragedy. London: Printed for W. Feales; A. Bettesworth; F. Clay, R. Welllington, C. Corbett and J. Brindley, 1735. 8. Facsimile of page 144 of Jane Austen’s Volume The First (1787-93), MS, Bodleian Library, Oxford. In Jane Austen’s Fiction Manuscripts: A Digital Edition. ii Acknowledgements I owe my biggest thanks to Jenny Davidson for encouraging me from the beginning to follow my own critical instincts, for training me to pursue them ambitiously yet responsibly, and for devoting her time and intellectual support so generously to this work and to me. Nick Dames and Erik Gray were likewise unfailingly generous in offering their time, insights and challenging questions to support a project whose scope slightly precedes their own periods of study. I am deeply grateful to my committee for all of this, and for their genuine attention and kindness since I started my PhD in 2010. Conversations with Anahid Nersessian about the prospectus and first chapter were foundational to my thinking about this topic, and she has remained a source of counsel and encouragement since her move to UCLA. Dustin Stewart has been an expert outside reader, a pillar of support and a good friend since his arrival at Columbia. I can trace my intellectual interest in the topic back to a lunch date with Claudia Johnson during my preparation for oral exams, when we talked about the complex operation of Elizabeth and Darcy’s exchanges in Pride and Prejudice; and I can trace my methodological interest in the visual page (both in print and in manuscript) back to the superb training in textual editing I received from Peter Sabor at the Burney Centre at McGill University. I’m exceedingly grateful to him, as well as to Robert De Maria and Edward Mendelson, for championing me in various ways through this early stage of my career. My thanks extend to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for the doctoral fellowship that funded the first four years of my graduate work. A reading group formed by Arden Hegele, Mike Paulson, Josh Swidzinski and myself— jokingly dubbed TMS, The Morningside School—was the source of much needed camaraderie, commiseration, and helpful editorial feedback on my second and third chapters. I’m grateful to iii these three colleagues for their friendship and sincere support, as well as to Columbia’s eighteenth-century colloquium for commenting on my first chapter and part of my introduction. In the wider world of eighteenth-century studies, Hilary Havens, Andrew Bricker, Stephanie De Gooyer and Jess Kaiser have generously shared professional wisdom and helped me learn the ropes. I’ve also had the good fortune to find friendship in a number of kind, smart people outside my field during these years at Columbia.